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Did you know that common household beauty products contain estrogen mimickers, endocrine disruptors, and known carcinogens? Did you know that rain forests, savannas, and sensitive areas around the world are dug up to make way for palm oil plantations? Can you pronounce Cyclotetrasiloxan, and do you what it does to aquatic life?

If so, Kudos to you and your toxicology knowledge! (And perhaps you have taken ENSC 201??) If not, pick up this month’s featured book, Ecoholic Body by Adria Vasil.

From body wash and shampoo to health care and contraceptives, Vasil covers everything you need to know about the products we use in our day-to-day lives, and how the chemicals we put on and in our bodies affect our health and the ecosystems around us.

Ecoholic Body represents the ethos of the Earth Centre, and our commitment to helping students Shop Responsibly and Live Sustainably. This easy-reading guidebook will help you navigate through greenwash, and equip you with the knowledge to choose products that keep you looking, smelling and feeling great without unnecessary toxicants. And hey, if you’re feeling inspired, you’re favorite non-profit campus store has some of her featured products available at cost – cheaper than listed in the book!

For those already familiar with the Ecoholic series, be sure to check out Adria’s blog for weekly posts on green-living tips and product advice www.ecoholic.ca.

The Earth Centre is proud to be a partner in GREENFEST, a campus-wide celebration of sustainability at Queen’s, from March 4th to March 8th.

Its 5 themed days – Energy & Climate, Waste Diversion, Food & Water, Transportation, and Sustainability Education – provide participants with 5 ways to live more sustainably
both on campus and at home.

We are hosting events throughout the week, so be sure to check out some of the green action!

Steven Moore, from Queen’s School of Business and the School of Environmental Studies, is offering three exciting courses in the very near future. Take Environmental Policy in Costa Rica this May; Field School in Sustainability Leadership at the castle this summer; and Sustainability Strategies and Practices here at Queen’s this fall.

It’s true, the Earth Centre is open! While you’re here, be sure to check out our library and resource centre. We have recently updated our library with over 50 brand new books that are begging to be borrowed! Also, with a new month comes a new Book of the Month. Alanna Mitchell’s “Sea Sick: The Global Oceans in Crisis” has the honour of being this September’s Book of the Month. Read the review and come check it out (of the library that is!).

You’d never guess it by the chilly weather, but spring is here (almost)! With that we thought we’d hit you with some updates:

1.) Modified Earth Centre Hours

We’re absolutely 100% open this week during our usual hours from 10-5 M-F and hope to see all your lovely faces to stock up for the coming month. To keep our library and products accessible, we’re going to be open from 10-5 until Friday April 15th. After that, the Earth Centre will be closing its doors for the 2010-2011 year. Sad. So be sure to come by and say hello/goodbye before the penthouse of the ARC quiets down!

2.) Book Exchange–Success!

Big thank you to all who participated in our first Book Exchange. It was an awesome event and we’re already getting stoked about possibilities for next year. Also, thanks/high fives to Alaya (Education Exec now, incoming External Co-Chair) for suggesting the idea and putting it together. Way to go!

3.) Kingston Sustainability Partnership!

We’re now an official community partner with the city of Kingston’s Sustainability Plan! Alright! Basically, what that means is we’re into what they’re doing and they’re digging what we’re up to. For more info on that process and the exact steps we outlined for the folks over at the city feel free to shoot an email or come by the Earth Centre. We’re pretty excited about this.

4.) Volunteers 2010-2011

Thank you thank you thank you! The Earth Centre couldn’t run without you all! I think I speak for all the Exec when I say that we really enjoyed getting to know all of you and loved the input/energy and commitment you all had this year. That being said, I’d love to see you this Friday at the social/volunteer appreciation. You all rock.

5.) Comment Box

There’s a newly added comment box in the Earth Centre for anyone to slip in a concern/suggestion/question. Totally anonymous and homemade. Alright!

6.) Library Updates

For all the library members out there with book still; please get them back to us by the 15th! We’ll start to hunt you down next week! On another note, if you’re finding that you have a lot of extra time on your hands, be sure to come by and check out the library. We got a pile of new books in earlier this week from the fabulous Alan from Transition Kingston.

Thanks again for a great year. Looking forward to seeing the Earth Centre take off in 2011-2012 to new, soaring and green heights.

We have an exciting side project that we are taking on that would benefit from having a few of you awesome volunteers helping us! The project is with a fourth year health project who has to implement a program and they have chosen to implement a sustainability program at the Boys and Girls Club. We are working with them to make an interactive education session to teach the kids there about the connection between their actions and the environment. We are looking for a few people to help create the session, so essentially making a lesson plan, figuring out all the logistics and then teaching it to the kids. The actual session will happen at 6:30- 7:30 on Monday, March 7th at the Boys and Girls Club, which is north of Princess on Bagot. If anyone wants to help with any portion of this project that would be much appreciated! This is great opportunity to get more involved with the Earth Centre and with the Kingston community, especially for those who unfortunately aren’t on the schedule and want to get more involved! Most of the work would happen the first week back from reading week, as the session will be on the following Monday and it probably would be maybe 3-5 hours of work. Taking this into consideration with your busy schedules, anyone who has time and wants to help or anyone who has any ideas can send me(Sarah) an email at my own email, 7si4(at)queensu.ca, and I will get back to you to get things rolling!

This month, I want to introduce Raj Patel’s best-selling book: Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Patel showcases the irony of the imbalance in the world’s food resources creating both an epidemic of obesity as well as one of hunger and malnutrition. The book is readable, and thankfully not rife with economic jargon. It presents an overview of the global food supply and how the crises can be addressed from the ground-up. It’s available at the Earth Centre library for two-week loans – I encourage everyone to at least browse through it!

Product of the month!

Tired of dragging around a massive bottle of laundry detergent? Nature Clean’s 3x Concentrate Natural Laundry Liquids requires only 1/3 the amount of normal laundry liquids for one load. So less plastic means less waste sent to landfills. This is a special low foaming formula made from plant and mineral materials and great for standard or High Efficiency machines. It won’t irritate sensitive skin or leave residues on your clothing. There are also no phosphates, sulphates, chlorine, enzymes, formaldehyde, synthetic perfumes or dyes. A 1L bottle can wash 43 loads. The Earth Centre sells a citrus blossom scent or unscented. Visit www.naturecleanliving.com for more info!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers and getting out and about. We’ve been hacking away at some new ideas for the Earth Centre for next year so stayed tuned for more updates later on this summer. If anyone is around Kingston this summer, be sure to check out the new Kingston Market (with a spanking new website!), the Sustainability Centre downtown and keep yourselves up to date on the goings on here in our little metropolis.

While we’re super excited about our new exec for next year, we’re still missing one crucial link: the Education Exec! If you’d like to apply feel free to shoot us an email at earthcentreatqueens(at)gmail.com. We’ll be accepting applications all summer long and hope to make a decision come September.

As always, feel free to email us any questions/comments/ideas/lingering thoughts/musings. We’re pumped about next year and would love any input you might have.